Russian Federation says 'immediate priority is to avert the danger of war'

Russian Federation says 'immediate priority is to avert the danger of war'

Russian Federation says 'immediate priority is to avert the danger of war'

Melissa Porter
|
16 April, 2018, 09:21

According to Interfax news agency, Russia's defence ministry also said that Syria intercepted the USA and allied attacks using Soviet-produced hardware, including the Buk missile system.

"Not one of the cruise missiles released by the USA and its allies entered the zone of responsibility of Russian air defences protecting facilities in Tartus and Hmeimim", the ministry said in a statement carried by the RIA Novosti state news agency, referring to the locations of Russia's naval facility in Tartus and its Hmeimim air base.

The US ambassador to the United Nations said Donald Trump "has not yet made a decision about possible actions in Syria".

USA TODAY will provide live coverage for this event. It cited the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow's UN ambassador, said he "cannot exclude" war between the United States and Russian Federation.

"US not leaving Syria until goals accomplished" Speaking to a media outlet, Nikki Haley said on Sunday that the United States would not pull its troops out of Syria until its goals were accomplished.

Assad, who is supported by Iranian-back fighters as well as the Russian air force, has cemented his control over most of the western, more heavily populated, part of the country.

The current escalation of the situation in Syria "has a destructive effect on the whole system of worldwide relations", the Kremlin said.

Senior Russian figures, including the head of the military, warned that USA missiles will be shot down and their launch sites targeted if Russian personnel come under threat, the report said.

A senior French official noted that President Emmanuel Macron did not tell Putin about the strikes when they spoke on the phone Friday, but "certain de-confliction mechanisms" had already been triggered by that point, and "both knew that a new phase was going to begin quickly". "It was something far bigger", he said.

Monday: Nebenzia told the U.N. Security Council "there was no chemical attack" over the previous weekend.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said its experts in Syria will start investigations on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was left with "no alternative path" but to order the air strikes.

While a full assessment has not yet been completed, "we believe that the action was successful", she said. He continued by saying that worldwide law has been systematically violated in Syria and that he feels angry at reports of chemical weapons use in the country.

In the UK, Cabinet ministers said that it was "highly likely" the Assad regime was responsible for the attack and said the use of chemical weapons must not "go unchallenged".

"We are carrying out an assessment of the material damages", the official added. The United States and Britain have also blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. "But should the United States and our allies decide to act in Syria, it will be in defense of a principle on which we all agree", Haley told the U.N. Security Council.